Week Is Over…

Well, here we are… Sunday night. After taking the week off on PTO to work on the kitchen and family room, we both feel a little defeated. Our optimism certainly got the best of us thinking we’d have cabinets in before the week was over.

We certainly got A LOT done and the week off was a huge help to get us to the point we are at now. As with any home project, we ran into obstacles that significantly impacted our timeline. From the chicken wire in the countertops, to the insane amount of mortar on the floor, to the drywall needing to be replaced and even some crazy electrical obstacles… we certainly had some curveballs.

We are finally (almost) to the point of having all the demolition and structural work done and can actually start working on getting the cabinets in.

We are so happy with all the open space that the work we did has created. Once we are all done, the kitchen and family room is going to be a wonderful entertainment space.

Now that we will be back to our day jobs tomorrow (Monday), we will be spending evenings and the next couple weekends finishing things up. We are still making some final design decisions on countertop and backsplash, but almost done getting those sorted out.

Thanks for following our journey this week. Stay tuned for much more and eventually, the final product. Having no kitchen during a time of closures across all industries is interesting, but we have a grill and a microwave, so we figure it all out! 😜

Some photos of the finished drywall to end out the week.

Stay safe and healthy out there!

This Wall… Why?

Slight delay in posts, but we’ve definitely been working hard. After the terrible backsplash encounter, we discovered we needed to replace some drywall. So, now we have been learning how to work with drywall. Lucky us. 😜

Ripping off the old drywall, we came across plywood all along the wall which has a message written from the original construction that basically sums up our last few days… “This Wall. Why”

This wall has been so much work since Tuesday, but finally getting it under control. Getting the drywall up and changing out some of the electrical work since all the junction boxes were broken.

We are behind schedule and what we thought we were going to get completed this last week, but taking the week off was definitely worth it. We wouldn’t have gotten nearly this far without it.

Here’s to hoping we have a successful Saturday and Sunday.

Stay safe and healthy out there!

No More Chicken Wire...

Ooof. Why, oh why, did someone use so much chicken wire when putting these countertops in?!?!

We hit a bit of a snag on Tuesday when trying to remove the kitchen countertops. The countertops were a massive mess of tile, mortar, and chicken wire. What’s worse, the chicken wire from the countertops connected to the backsplash. So, in order to take the countertops off, we had to break through the mortar of the backsplash to cut the chicken wire. What a mess!

Have no fear, we were finally able to get all the countertops off - with some heavy frustration - and the final base cabinet was carried out around 11:30pm.

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Today’s goal: Get the upper cabinets out and the backsplash off. We’re hoping to make up some time and get these knocked out by noon. So ready to be able to finally start working with our new cabinets!

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Chloe’s Corner:
There’s not too much to update on Chloe. She’s been locked in the bedroom most of the time we’re working, so she’s pretty angry at her dads. Though, she’s certainly living the life of luxury… don’t feel too bad for her. Also, she doesn’t know yet, but we’re officially WFH until the end of the month… she’s going to get real annoyed with us soon.

So much tile…

We spent a total of about 8 hours pulling up tile throughout the kitchen and family room. We will ultimately be replacing the flooring with the same wood floors in the formal living/dining space.

It took us a lot of man power to chip up the tile and now we just need to get all the mortar up. To save our bodies, we’ve decided to rent a tool from Home Depot to help in the process. Hopefully by the end of Monday, the floors will be clean and ready to go.

We also plan to start taking out the old cabinets on Monday to make room for the beautiful new ones.

Chloe spent the day sleeping and upset that she wasn’t allowed to be in the construction zone while we worked. 😜

Before she was exiled, she was keeping all of her friends close by.

Embarking on the biggest project yet...

Here we are again, another long delay in updates. A lot has been going on the past 2 months. We’ve been updating little things around the house like lighting and door handles. We finished off the flooring in the formal living/dining space, including the entry “step” with some awesome new tiles.

But now, the big project starts. We are about to rip out the kitchen cabinets, flooring in the kitchen and family room, and replace it all. Our cabinets were delivered yesterday. We’re still looking for that perfect countertop, but will be making a decision on that very soon. As we go on this next big journey, we will be updating much more often with (hopefully) daily updates on how the kitchen is going. It’s an exciting project to share!!! You can also follow both of us on Instagram for some likely fun updates @dusteallen and @mrstevenjoseph.

A Quick Look at What We’ve Been Up To
New tile in the front entry and new floors in the formal living and dining space. You can also see the new chandelier we put in over the dining table.

Before and After:
Formal living/dining space. After is on top, before on bottom. Bye, bye carpet!

Kitchen Remodel

We knew when we bought the house, we wanted to remodel the kitchen. The kitchen is currently in fine shape, but it’s dated with hard to use space and odd cabinet configurations. We wanted to put our spin on the kitchen and bring it to a modern, useful space.

We did a lot of research around kitchen cabinets. Keeping budget in mind, we made the decision to go with Ready to Assemble (RTA) cabinets and then needed to find the best place to get them. We reached out to a few of the big names in the market and got quotes. While all of them were pretty good, we ultimately decided to go with IKEA kitchen cabinets.

With IKEA, the value was greater with more configurations and ability to include things that were extra with the other companies. We did lots of research about the quality of IKEA cabinets and how they’ve held up over the years and found ourselves to be pleasantly surprised. We knew we wanted to get white shaker cabinets and IKEA offers a great looking one in their AXSTAD line. So, we took the plunge, made the order and received 122+ boxes yesterday. Now, the assembly begins!

Here are some before pictures of the kitchen.

Alright, here we go! Next update: KITCHEN!


Chloe’s Corner:

I’d like to say I’m a pretty good supervisor. I stand back, let my dads be autonomous, but I do have to approve of everything they do and test it out before they’re done. For Christmas, I got a new bed that I absolutely love. It’s perfect for watching my dads work.

The Calm Before the Storm...

Some photos of the house before we start giving it our special touch.

We loved the bones of the house. The tall ceilings (hello 12’ Christmas tree!), the big windows, and the openness of the space. Our goal is to take this beautiful home and make it ours with some refreshed finishes, new floors, updated bathrooms, and updated kitchen. We’ll be doing some landscaping work too, but holding off until the Spring for that work. We’re excited to share with you all.